Exploring Democratization in Industry via Multi-Agent Systems: A firm-based Case Study

Democracy is typically a question of political government. Nevertheless, in recent years, the forms of democratic development have changed in the course of the governance debate. According to the Council of Europe, E-democracy tools use technology to boost key democratic values like participation, inclusivity, efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, openness and accountability within the democratic system. And civil society and companies are playing an increasingly important role in the making and re-making of collective order. Moreover, there are specific challenges emerging as well, to name only the concentration of market power and the circumvention of employee co-determination. At the same time, however, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sometimes take on the role of pioneers. One key example is about AI-based decision support systems in order to realize new decision-making and co-determination opportunities. This raises the question of what potential for democratization and, if so, in what form, is actually emerging here. Building on our previous work, this study delves deeper into the question of how democratization in companies takes place and, moreover, can be achieved. It further explores the extent to which a democratic decision-support tool is accepted by workers and examines the challenges associated with a legitimate implementation process of such a tool. These insights are derived from a case study conducted within an SME. The key result is that democratic AI in the SME context, enabled by Multi-Agent Systems, can only be achieved if fundamental democratic features are incorporated into the development and implementation process. This ensures that the use of the AI tool not only increases efficiency but also improves the company and empowers employees to engage in meaningful participation. According to our findings, these democratic features are transparency, fairness, and representation. This implementation process leads to continuous stabilization and fosters legitimacy.